Brandes Investment Partners LP Boosts Stock Position in L.B. Foster Company $FSTR

Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its holdings in L.B. Foster Company (NASDAQ:FSTR) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,360,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,371 shares during the quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned 13.09% of L.B. Foster worth $36,663,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FSTR. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of L.B. Foster by 7.4% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 238,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,207,000 after purchasing an additional 16,320 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of L.B. Foster by 5.7% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 9,667 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 525 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of L.B. Foster in the second quarter valued at $201,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of L.B. Foster by 1.5% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 32,042 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $701,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of L.B. Foster by 15.2% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 52,527 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,149,000 after purchasing an additional 6,920 shares in the last quarter. 80.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at L.B. Foster

In related news, major shareholder Aron R. English sold 38,431 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total value of $1,077,989.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 1,027,255 shares in the company, valued at $28,814,502.75. This trade represents a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 146,950 shares of company stock valued at $4,161,706 in the last ninety days. 7.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of L.B. Foster from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research raised shares of L.B. Foster from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of L.B. Foster from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, B. Riley Financial raised their price target on L.B. Foster from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, L.B. Foster currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.00.

L.B. Foster Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of FSTR opened at $42.10 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $440.37 million, a PE ratio of 40.87 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.28 and a 200 day moving average of $31.10. L.B. Foster Company has a 52-week low of $19.22 and a 52-week high of $43.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

L.B. Foster (NASDAQ:FSTR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.36. The company had revenue of $121.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $104.30 million. L.B. Foster had a return on equity of 6.36% and a net margin of 1.98%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that L.B. Foster Company will post 1.74 EPS for the current year.

About L.B. Foster

L.B. Foster Company is a diversified infrastructure solutions provider offering products and services to the transportation, energy, and construction markets. Founded in 1902 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company has built a reputation for delivering specialty materials and engineering solutions that support critical infrastructure projects across various industries.

The company’s operations are organized into three primary segments: Rail Products & Services, Construction Products, and Tubular & Energy Products.